Monday, January 12, 2015

The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani.

The Muslims Are Coming!:
Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun
Kundnani. Paperback book published by Verso 2014, 329 pages.

“Following
the killing of Osama bin Laden, polls showed that the public was more
anxious about terrorism after his death than before. The new front in
the War on Terror became the “homegrown enemy,” domestic
terrorists who are the focus of sprawling counterterrorism structures
of policing and surveillance in the United States and across Europe.
Undercover officers and informants have spied on 30 mosques in New
York alone. Surveillance has grown explosively—at least 100,000
Muslims in America have been secretly investigated in recent
years—and in incredible detail—counter-terrorism agents have a
file on every Moroccan taxi driver in New York City. British police
compiled a secret suspect list of more than 8,000 al-Qaeda
“sympathizers”, and included almost 300 children 15 and under on
its list of suspected extremists, while MI5 doubled in size in just
five years. Based on several years of research and reportage from
Texas and New York to Yorkshire, and written in engrossing, precise
prose, this is the first comprehensive critique of
counter-radicalization strategies. The new policy and policing
campaigns have been backed by an anti-extremism industry of newly
minted experts, and by examining the ideas of even liberal
commentators like Martin Amis, Paul Berman, and Timothy Garton Ash,
the book also looks at the way these debates have been transformed by
the embrace of a narrowly configured and ill-conceived
anti-extremism.”

The
world is a sad and complicated place. I decided to write about this
book at this point in time for obvious reasons, but I don't really
know what to say other than these issues are complex and difficult at
times to fully grasp or comprehend particularly if one isn't actively
involved*. This book raises some interesting questions and reading
through the publishers blurb, I can't help but think about the people
who aren't being watched or investigated, that is those that do want
to do harm... and more importantly those that have done harm. It's
always a few bad apples who give the rest a bad reputation which I
guess is why Islamic communities around the world are being so vocal
at this point in time. Despite 3 million people marching through the
streets of Paris, I don't think this will stop the bad apples from
doing bad again. You can have as many dodgy world leaders (there were
a few there) holding hands in unity (a few were obviously not
standing next to each other), but I didn't see any ISIS leaders there
and by the information at hand, it is these people who need to hold
hands with the rest of the world instead of shooting at it.

*There
have been no terrorist attacks here in Clunes in the last 142 years.

About Me

Huc & Gabet: Books of interest is a secondhand bookseller based in Clunes (Booktown), Victoria, Australia. These ramblings are intended as amusement and are based on the informed and ill informed (more of the ill informed, than the informed) opinions of the author. Anyone interested in purchasing books from me can check out my website. There is a link above.